Motors & Styrofoam
Concert/Sound installation
Duration approximately 30 minutes
Interface and Software Sukandar Kartadinata
2000/01

images / text / sound


Eight motors are mounted to a chaotically assembled, more or less horizontally expanding plane of constructed and found Styrofoam pieces. The sound installation is hanging from the ceiling of the exhibition or concert space above the heads of the seated or standing members of the audience. The Styrofoam serves as a natural amplifier and resonator for the whirring sound of the motors. It supports the development of combination tones resulting from the tight clusters deriving from the speed of the motors and distribute them unequally across the instrument’s total area.

The movements of the motors are computer operated by means of a site-specific sequencer track recorded immediately before the concert. The instrument is constructed from the pieces of Styrofoam available at each venue. The instrument’s dimensions are dependent on the length of time it takes to built it and the amount of Styrofoam collected. The Styrofoam is recycled after the exhibition or concert.